The Abboject.RTM. prefilled emergency syringe sold by Abbott Laboratories is used both for hypodermic injections directly through the patient's skin and also for injections through a standard reseal on a patient venous access device such as a catheter for example.
The Abboject emergency syringe system includes a calibrated glass vial prefilled with a medical solution and a matching vial injector. The vial injector (or syringe housing) includes an integral delivery needle that can be used to inject the medical solution directly into a patient or into a reseal on an access device such as an I.V. tubing administration set or an I.V. container connected to a patient. The standard Abboject syringe is manufactured with the delivery needle enclosed by a removable needle hood to protect against accidental needle stick. The hood also protects the sterile needle from contamination prior to use.
Today, both patients and healthcare providers are constantly at risk of accidental needle stick from exposed needles. Needles used for hypodermic injections pose a risk of infection from blood borne diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis. Currently there are many efforts to reduce the number of exposed needles in the healthcare environment, especially in emergency situations. These efforts include minimizing the need for direct hypodermic injections into a patient by providing I.V. administration sets with reusable and/or multiple access sites. Additionally, removable and permanent needle guards such as the Lifeshield Abboject emergency syringe with needle guard are provided when sharp needle syringes are needed. Recently, blunt cannula and prepierced reseals are increasingly used for I.V. connections rather than traditional sharp needles and pierceable reseals. Alternatively, luer fitment connections are increasingly used in I.V. set connections in place of sharp needles and reseals.
Emergency syringes that are used for drug administration at injection sites on I.V. tubing sets also expose the healthcare provider to an additional type of accidental needle stick. Besides a life-threatening blood infection that may have infiltrated from the patient's blood system to the needle, the provider may be exposed to the side effects of drug residue in the needle.
Therefore it is desirable to provide an emergency syringe system that decreases the risk of accidental needle stick yet is readily capable of various configurations for the different connection procedures currently used, such as needle or luer connections.
Furthermore, it is also desirable that the safety and configuration features can be added to the standard Abboject syringes currently manufactured for hypodermic injections, and also to the Lifeshield Abboject syringe with guarded needle for I.V. set connections, thus providing continuity, economy and flexibility in product manufacture.
An example of a protective sheath and cap for a syringe needle is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,669 to Nitshke. The syringe is intended for use with an additive port of a flexible bag and therefore the sheath does not extend beyond the needle point. The sheath and a removable protective cap maintains the sterility of the syringe needle. However, the health care provider is at risk of accidental needle stick when the protective cap is removed. The sheath of Nitshke is attached to the syringe by an collar engaging the needle hub and therefore a sheath similar to the one suggested by the Nitshke disclosure could not be added to the standard Abboject syringe without extensively redesigning the Abboject syringe and the Abboject syringe manufacturing process. The current Abboject needle hub is already used as a friction fit for the needle hood.
A protected needle is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,716 to Ogle. In FIG. 2 of Ogle, the protective sheath is fixed to the needle hub of the syringe. As previously discussed, fixing a protective sheath to the needle hub as suggested by Ogle does not allow a needle hood to be attached to the hub of the standard Abboject syringe as currently manufactured.
It is desirable to provide an emergency syringe for dual use with either a needle and reseal connection or alternatively a luer connection.
It is desirable that the luer connection and the needle connection components already be assembled to the emergency syringe so that the syringe is ready to use without having to add components during the emergency procedure.
It is desirable that the emergency health care provider can make either a luer connection or can make a needle to reseal connection by only having to remove a selected cover element.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a luer adapter assembly for the Abboject emergency syringe so as to facilitate easy use in an emergency situation and to protect the healthcare provider from accidental needle stick.
It is another object of the present invention to add a luer adapter assembly to currently manufactured Abboject and Lifeshield Abboject syringes so that the syringes may be more safely and flexibly used with various I.V. set access devices.
It is another object of the present invention to protect the sterilized needle and luer adapter fitment connection from contamination until either is used.
It is another object of the present invention to provide easy and safe conversion of an emergency syringe from a needle and reseal connection to a luer connection.